5 ways to get motivated

Sunday morning, time to upload another blog post. We should have written it earlier this week, that would have saved some unnecessary stress.

Do you procrastinate and end up feeling like you’re stuck, not knowing what to write about or where to start? Or have you simply lost your motivation and end up scrolling through instagram or watching YouTube videos?

Today, I’d like to share with you a few things that I do to get motivated when I don’t know what to blog or vlog about!

Let me clarify that Jordy never procrastinates, and doesn’t lose motivation. I could learn a thing or two from him 😉

Turn off your phone

These days, we take our phones everywhere. I don’t think most of us could imagine life without any form of digital communication. We often find ourselves staring at that screen even when we’re in the bathroom!

Our little handheld screens are a distraction. So when it’s time to finish an essay, a school project, a blog post, or anything else that has a deadline, that phone has to be switched off.

We personally put our phones on silent and place it on our desk facing down, so we can’t see messages coming in. Sure, we check them every now and then for urgent messages, but other things are fully ignored until we’re finished.

Friends and family will understand that you don’t respond to their text about last night’s TV show or tomorrow’s dinner. Surely we can’t expect each other to reply within seconds, there’s a place and time for everything!

Go for a walk

Even if it’s just for fifteen minutes, going for a walk can really clear your head.

We often go out together with our dog Mojo. She can get some exercise whilst we talk about the stuff we have to get done that day.

Walking – with or without your four legged friend – can be a great start of your day. It always leaves us feeling productive when we return from a walk on Monday morning and it’s still early!

How’s that for a start to the new week?

Listen to a podcast

Over the past few months, we’ve really gotten into listening to podcast episodes.

Since working in the van on his own can be a bit boring, Jordy prefers to have some background noise. This can also be a music playlist, but podcasts offer a bit extra. Oftentimes you can learn (silly) facts and have a laugh, and that’s what we love about them.

You can combine listening to podcast series with your walks, cleaning your house, doing the dishes, or basically whenever you’re doing something that doesn’t require your full attention.

It takes your mind away from the thing you’ve been focusing on for a bit too long, and often gives us some new ideas for things to do or write about!

Here’s a list of podcasts we often listen to:

Stuff You Should Know

ProBlogger

Stuff To Blow Your Mind

Ted Radio Hour

Radiolab

Techstuff

We download episodes into an app when we have WiFi connection, so we can listen to them wherever we are. This means that we can enjoy them even when we start traveling and won’t have a great internet connection at all times!

Listen to music

You can’t combine listening to a podcast episode when you’re writing an important text. That doesn’t mean you can’t listen to your favorite songs, though!

I love to listen to YouTube playlists. Instead of selecting each number separately, I select a 60-120 minute playlist. This saves me some time and ensures that I don’t get distracted!

Lately I’ve been really enjoying indie and folk, because it’s often soft and upbeat. My favorite place to listen to playlists of this genre is the YouTube channel alexrainbirdMusic.

We both love different types of music, but enjoy each other’s favorite genres. Jordy prefers hardstyle, hip hop from the 90s, and instrumental guitar music.

If you do get distracted when listening to music, you can also choose to take a little break from working or studying and just sing along to your favorite songs. Anything that gets your mood up will improve your productivity!

Change up your surroundings

A final tip that we’d like to share is working in a different area than you’re used to.

This can be very simple. Often, cleaning up your desk can do the trick.

I often have a messy desk and it can distract me. When I start the week with a morning walk, I afterwards sort out the items on my desk and clean it with a biodegradable all-purpose cleaner with a citrusy scent. This smell always wakes me up!

There are other ways to change your surroundings however.

If the weather is nice, we love to take our laptop outdoors and write in a park.

On rainy days it can be fun to pack up your bag and visit a local café. There are many people that do some work at Starbucks or these days in any type of lunchroom where they have an internet connection. It might work for you too! Why not give it a try?

Don’t forget to bring an apple or a healthy homemade snack to save some money and ensure a healthy bite to eat. And bring along a reusable cup and straw to limit single use plastic!

I personally love to stay home and listen to the rain tap on our window, whilst writing in bed with a hot cup of tea!